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“Stars are stars,” Metropolitan Opera general manager Peter Gelb says. “They’re different than company members." In this case, it means musicians on union contracts must go on tour in Japan, while some of the Met's brightest lights have cancelled their planned appearances due to worries about radiation. Anna Netrebko, Jonas Kaufmann, and others have told the company -- some at the last minute -- that they won't appear, after an earthquake and tsunami spelled nuclear disaster in the island nation. The Met has lined up good replacements in some cases, though, including Netrebko's frequent collaborator, Rolando Villazon.

New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg has kept quiet about his family. But his daughter Georgina has just released a novel clearly based on that family. The genesis is interesting: An agent came to her with the idea and a cowriter.

After years of delays, Peter Jackson's two-part film based on J. R. R. Tolkein's The Hobbitgets release dates. Jackson, who directed the Lord of the Rings series, will bring Tolkein back to life for us on Dec. 14, 2012, and Dec. 13, 2013.

Entertainment Weekly thinks the trailer for David Fincher's remake of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo has been pirated and leaked. Hmm. Did Fincher and co. release it on purpose? Smart marketing move, if so.